Stamps hope to provide city a 'boost' against Lions

Calgary Stampeders head coach John Hufnagel looks over his note as his team takes the field in the first quarter of CFL pre-season football action against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina, Sask., Thursday, June 20, 2013.

Photograph by: Liam Richards
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

CALGARY -- In the aftermath of the Twin Towers’ horrors, a nation sought solace in sports.

John Hufnagel, the Calgary Stampeders head coach and general manager, was the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts when terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York resulted in one of the central dialectics of the tragedy's aftermath: Should games be played or not? The National Football League ultimately provided a template for other professional leagues by postponing games out of respect to the victims and the sense of dislocation in Manhattan.

“I was in the NFL during the 9/11 crisis,” Hufnagel said Thursday, during his pre-game news conference. “The team I was on played later in New York. Obviously, it was very emotional. But it just showed the support and the camaraderie of the United States.”

Hufnagel is thinking that Friday night’s CFL game between the Stampeders and B.C.Lions at McMahon Stadium might provide some similar normalcy -- some therapy through perspiration -- on a beautiful July 1 weekend night to a city and a province still drying out from the Great Flood of 2013.

Reading from prepared notes, he addressed the situation in his opening remarks:

“Our hearts truly go out to the people who have been displaced and affected by the flood,” he said. “This is an incredibly challenging time for so many Calgarians. This football team is looking forward to providing a little boost to our city for a few hours. The Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions have butted heads many times before. Both organizations are looking forward to playing football again.”

Calgary remains in a state of emergency, however, and mayor Naheed Neshi is urging motorists to stay off the roadways except for essential business. But McMahon Stadium, situated well above the flood plain, is high and dry and was virtually unaffected by the torrential rains that brought devastation to other parts of the city but only resulted in leaks and some pooling at the Stampeders’ home.

Appropriate or not, it is now deemed acceptable for Stampeder fans to rush to the park for the first mass public event since the the flood, to cheer for the football team and stuff Red Cross donation boxes set up in aid of the flood victims.

“No, no. I don’t equate this with 9/11,” Hufnagel cautioned. “Don’t go there. I just used that reference to point out a parallel -- a state of emergency, a crisis, and so on. I was asked something about the atmosphere in a stadium and how it can bring people together. It can.”

Nowhere is the juxtaposition between diversion and entertainment in some parts of Calgary and gravity in others more evident than at McMahon. The Stampeders’ administration offices have taken in their brethren from the Calgary Flames, displaced after waters started rushing into the Saddledome to made it resemble hockey’s version of the sinking of the Titanic.

“It’s been business as usual here,” said Dave Dickenson, the Stampeders’ offensive coordinator. “Everywhere else, it’s been tragic. There have been a lot of problems. Never seen it like that. When I say it hasn’t affected us, it’s really affected everybody. Because everybody knows somebody who was affected by it.”

Stu Mitchell, who trucks the Lions’ equipment to away games in Calgary, Edmonton and Regina (the Lions use air cargo for points east of Saskatchewan), was prepared to take a route through the Yellowhead Pass to Edmonton, and then south to Calgary. But the Trans-Canada highway was opened through Banff and Canmore, Alta., and he was able to make it through by using the most direct route.

“I had to pick my way through Canmore,” he said. “There was debris everywhere.”

The Lions had to scramble for accommodations -- their usual downtown hotel, the Delta Bow Valley, was without power -- but a political convention, slated for the Sheraton Eau Claire, was cancelled because of the unseemly nature of talking politics in the midst of a crisis. The Lions took advantage and made a booking. Eau Claire is French for “clear water.” No, there hasn’t been a lot of that in Calgary lately.

Mark Stephen, the radio voice of the Stampeders, will be at his usual perch at McMahon for Friday’s game. But last Friday, in the midst of a preseason broadcast from Mosaic Stadium in Regina, he was told that his station, CHQR 770, was being evacuated because of the flooding in downtown Calgary. He had to fill commercial breaks with recorded music.

“The funny part of that game, too, was that the Stamps had to walk part way to that game,” Stephen explained. “A couple of underpasses got flooded, they got stalled in the traffic and had to get out. Heavy rains seemed to follow us everywhere.”

It’s difficult to get away from flood talk in Calgary because everybody has a story to tell.

But Friday night, football intrudes on the conversation. And for many Calgarians, it might be a relief to see somebody go deep in something besides hip waders.

Calgary Stampeders head coach John Hufnagel looks over his note as his team takes the field in the first quarter of CFL pre-season football action against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina, Sask., Thursday, June 20, 2013.

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